Oral Health Education

At LWA we look after you, the dental nurse, as a professional, hence we continually develop programmes to enhance your knowledge and skills as well as help guide you in your career pathway. One of our newest programmes is the NEBDN Certificate in Oral health education.

Oral Health Education is a very unique avenue of dentistry where we deal with influencing an individual's dental behaviour, or on a broader scale, a whole community's behavioural pattern, to keep the mouth free from disease. Oral health is of vital importance in maintaining one's well being, hence becomes an essential component of overall health.

This programme provides learning opportunities through a collaborative approach with a variety of health care providers within our team. Practical and on-the-job assignments and testing furthers your own knowledge base by academic assignments.
A record of experience portfolio will be completed as evidence-based approach to the qualification.

Aims
In the context of lifelong learning for the dental care professional, the aims of this programme targets the provision of learning opportunities and invaluable experiences that will allow students to:

• Develop knowledge and the skill of the provision of oral health education
• Shape and form academic and practical skills in relation to promoting oral health
• Have first-hand experience and promote the role of oral health education in primary and secondary care environments
• Develop reflective skills to evaluate personal and professional growth
• Incorporate and deepen personal and professional development in one's life.
• Provide OHE to patients at your practice, or even to groups of people

There are other reasons why we encourage you to undertake the this OHE programme, which include

• If you work within a Primary Health Care Trust you may be able to obtain a position as an Oral Health Educator which is one of the upcoming priorities of the NHS Trust
• Wider and better job prospects. i.e. Private or specialised dentistry
• Commitment to Continuous Professional Development (CPD)
• The Oral Health Education course will provide you with insight & skills associated in both becoming a tutor or a Dental Hygienist/therapist, and may prove to be a stepping stone into either of the courses

The awarding body is the National Examining Board for Dental Nurses (NEBDN) www.nebdn.org.
The Criteria for the Oral Health Education programme criteria include;

• You are a qualified dental nurse (either National Certificate or NVQ level 3)